Foyt wouldn’t mind having Sprint Cup stars Tony Stewart or Jeff Gordon driving for him next year at Indy.

"If he wanted to, yes he could do a good job at Indy and if he wanted to, I’d consider it," said Foyt of having Jeff Gordon compete for him in the Indy 500. "Tony too. I gave Tony his first Indy ride in testing. Definitely I would (consider giving them a seat) because I know they could do the job."

Amy Ruman captures flag-to-flag victory at New Jersey Motorsports ParkAmy Ruman, in the #23 McNichols Chevrolet Corvette, started on pole position at New Jersey Motorsports for the RacingJunk.com 100, Round 5 of the 2014 Trans Am Championship, a position that she held for the duration of the race, despite multiple challenges from defending Champion Doug Peterson. The win, her first since the 2012 season, places Ruman within 2 points of Peterson for the Championship lead going into the rest of the 2014 season.

“This week has been all about my team, my mom, my dad, everyone that works so hard for me, McNichols, everyone that lets me do what I do,” said Ruman. “I can’t thank everyone enough for all the effort they give me week in and week out. It felt great to start on pole and lead the race, back-to-back wins in New Jersey is pretty cool too—so I guess I really like Thunderbolt track here.”

The race began with Ruman on pole with Peterson, in the #87 3Dimensional.com Chevrolet Corvette, alongside and the #59 Derhaag Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette of Simon Gregg in third position.

Esteban Ocon (Prema Powerteam) concluded his race weekend at the 4.381 kilometers long Hungaroring with yet another victory. The 17-year-old Lotus F1 junior driver won the twelfth season round of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship from Antonio Fuoco (Prema Powerteam), who is backed by the Ferrari Driver Academy, and Lucas Auer (kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport). With his fifth win of the season, Esteban Ocon extended his lead in the drivers’ standings of the strongest junior single-seater race series and now has 82 points more than his nearest rival, Tom Blomqvist (Jagonya Ayam with Carlin). The Briton finished sixth in the race near the Hungarian capital of Budapest that was stopped early due to rain.

Esteban Ocon takes fourth season victoryFor the fourth time this season, rookie driver Esteban Ocon (Prema Powerteam) scored a race win in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship. At the 4.381 kilometers long Hungaroring near Budapest, the 17-year-old Lotus F1 junior driver was 6.977 seconds faster than his team-mate Antonio Fuoco (Prema Powerteam). Lucas Auer (kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport) followed closely behind the Ferrari Driver Academy protege throughout the race, but the 18-year-old Italian still managed to bring his second place home. Swede Felix Rosenqvist (kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport) and championship runner-up Tom Blomqvist (Jagonya Ayam with Carlin) followed the Austrian. Race winner Ocon extended his lead in the drivers’ standings to 65 points.

In a commanding way, Marco Wittmann decided the third DTM season round at the Hungaroring in his favor. Driving his BMW M4 DTM, Wittmann, who had started from pole position, crossed the finish line as the winner after 41 laps with a margin of 6.615 seconds. Following his success in the Hockenheim season opener, this was the second DTM race win for the Franconian, who will now come to his home race at the Norisring (27 till 29 June) as the championship leader.

"This is a great success, because in the closing stages, you never know whether the drivers with option tires can still close up. However, our strategy worked out. I built up a huge advantage and then held on to it without making any mistakes. I am not wasting any thoughts on the title, we are just working from one race to another," Wittmann commented. Miguel Molina (Audi) and Bruno Spengler (BMW) finished second and third respectively. In total, 33,000 spectators came to watch the first DTM race weekend in Hungary after 26 years.

An intriguing duel between Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) and Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) saw the former come out on top at Mugello, with Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) joining them on the podium.

The two Spaniards put on a great show in front of the Italian crowd, battling for the lead for several laps, only for Marquez to clinch a sixth successive victory in 2014 by 0.121s on the final lap.

At his 300th Grand Prix the yellow sea of fans were willing Rossi to capitalize on any mistake from the front two, and although The Doctor had to settle for third by just under three seconds it was still a great ride for him from 10th on the grid.

A rather unfortunate headlineYes, let it be noted that Roger Penske's NASCAR and IndyCar teams both won pole positions this weekend. However, at the risk of appearing somewhat juvenile, we happened upon this rather unfortunate headline, which we figured we would share.

With bright sunshine and a light soothing breeze, it's one picturesque late spring Sunday morning here in the Motor City. The Verizon IndyCar Series teams are preparing for today's race 2 of the Chevrolet Indy Dual in Detroit Presented by Quicken Loans.

One thing to note, is everything starts over today. Unlike last year, when the teams qualified for the Sunday race on Saturday, qualifying for today's race with teams will qualify at 10 a.m. to determine the field for this afternoon's race.

Some teams, of course, had repairs from yesterday's race. I caught up with the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports team about a half hour ago. Saturday was a rather forgettable day for the SPM boys as Pagenaud finished 22nd, Aleshin came home 17th, and both cars sustained crash damage.

I asked if last evening was a long one for the team. One of the crew members told me, that while repairs were necessary, they were "nothing major." Both cars are ready to go.

EJ Viso makes it two-in-row in Detroit Super TrucksEJ Viso made it two-in-a-row Saturday. The first race of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix weekend on Belle Isle was a wild one Friday afternoon, with trucks soaring 15 feet in the air off ramps, then blistering the straightaway at 150 mph.

In the end, one truck slammed into the wall, another landed upside down and E.J. Viso escaped to win the crash-shortened event after thrilling thousands of fans on Free Prix Day on the island.

Jackie Stewart on hand Saturday doing the rounds with IndyCar CEO Mark Miles

The Wee Scot dropped into Belle Isle to watch a bit of racing Saturday.

Some fans walked past him without a second glance. But a couple of men in their 40s stopped and turned around.

"That’s Jackie Stewart," one said. "He was a world champion."

In fact, Sir Jackie was a three-time Formula One world champion, winning the titles in a deadly era of motorsports in 1969, 1971 and 1973.

And while he was at Belle Isle during the Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix event, he actually was in town to attend the wedding of the daughter of Edsel Ford II, the great-grandson of Henry Ford.

Jack Hawksworth had to decide. Would he study to become a personal trainer in England or continue racing in America?

Well, that turned out to be a no-brainer if you consider Hawksworth is now on the radar of every Verizon IndyCar Series team.

The 23-year-old from West Yorkshire is in a hurry. At Belle Isle, he started third in the first Chevrolet Indy Dual in Detroit on Saturday. He got as high as second, but finished 19th, four laps down, after brake issues.

Driving for Bryan Herta Autosport, Hawksworth almost decided to hang up his helmet at the start of the season.

"I didn’t have a sure plan," said Hawksworth, who started 13th at the Indy 500 and finished 20th after placing seventh earlier in May at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. "I was really considering returning to England and taking on a career in personal training."

Toto Wolff must be smoking some weed. The F1 borefest his team has created will eventually kill off F1. And if you don't like the new sound of F1, well you can blame Mercedes for that too. Under the threat of we'll leave F1 or else, F1's sick sounding 'green' engines are hated by everyone but Mercedes who had a big part in conceiving them.

Mercedes will need to "extract every bit of potential" from the car and the drivers to win in Montreal, according to Toto Wolff.

Although Mercedes have yet to be beaten this season, the Austrian has once again insisted that Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg cannot take anything for granted.

The duo have dominated this season, taking six pole positions and six wins, handing them a massive advantage in the Championships.

However, Wolff reckons their advantage out on track is diminishing and, as a result, they need to pull out all the stops next weekend in Canada.

"We are pleased to head to Canada on the back of another strong weekend in Monaco," Wolff stated.

"We went into that race convinced that our rivals could outperform us and that's how we worked to prepare for the weekend: like we were the underdogs.

"So we were pleased to see that we still had a good advantage at the front of the field.

A meeting with fellow Spaniard Fernando Alonso has prompted MotoGP champion Marc Marquez to say he would like to try Formula One at some point in his career.

Valentino Rossi, a six-time MotoGP champion, tested for Ferrari in 2006 and memorably finished his final day half a second off the pace of Michael Schumacher, which fuelled speculation he would one day make the switch. Marquez, who won the MotoGP title in his debut season last year, secured his sixth consecutive pole position of the season in Mugello ahead of Sunday's Italian Grand Prix, where he later met Alonso, and admitted he has considered following in Rossi's footsteps.

Charles "Hoss" Ellington diesFormer NASCAR team owner and driver Charles "Hoss" Ellington has passed away at the age of 79. Ellington, a native of Wilmington, N.C., won five races as a car owner in NASCAR's premier division, and his cars had 52 top-five and 92 top-10 finishes in 264 races from 1968 to 1988. Donnie Allison won four races in 55 starts with Ellington from 1977 to 1982.

The most famous race for Ellington wasn't one he won, it was one he lost. In 1979, Donnie Allison was leading the last lap of the Daytona 500 in Ellington's No. 1 Hawaiian Tropic-sponsored Oldsmobile when Yarborough attempted to slingshot under him on the backstretch. The two crashed in Turn 3, allowing Richard Petty to win. Allison, his brother Bobby and Yarborough got into a fistfight in the infield after the race, generating national headlines for NASCAR. Ellington also had 21 starts as a driver in what is now known as the Sprint Cup Series from 1968 to 1970. In those 21 races, Ellington never led a lap, but had four top-10 finishes. Fox Sports

Johnny O'Connell, of Flowery Branch, Ga., Dan Knox, of Pilot Point, Texas, and Dean Martin, of Westland, Mich., took wins in Round 5 of the Pirelli World Challenge 2014 season, at the Cadillac V-Series Challenge presented by the Metro Detroit Cadillac Dealers. Both O'Connell (GT) and Martin (GTS) converted Motul pole positions into race wins, while Knox (GT-A) came from third on the grid to capture his first series victory.

O'Connell, driving the No. 3 Cadillac Racing Cadillac CTS-V.R, got an excellent launch from the standing start and within two laps, had a lead of more than 4.5 seconds on the rest of the field.

In DTM’s comeback at the Hungaroring located not far from Budapest, BMW driver Marco Wittmann secured the pole position. In the qualifying session, the German set the fastest lap time by crossing the line in 1:36.518 minutes, thus outqualifying second-placed fellow BMW driver Timo Glock by 0.213 seconds.

Busch nears sweep in DoverKyle Busch's dominant weekend at the Monster Mile continued on Saturday.

Hours after leading 150 laps to win the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, Busch led the final 124 to capture Saturday's Buckle Up 200 presented by Click It or Ticket in the Nationwide Series.

Already the only driver to win all three NASCAR national series events in a single weekend, Busch will attempt to duplicate the feat he accomplished in August 2010 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Busch starts alongside pole-sitter Brad Keselowski in Sunday's Sprint cup race, the FedEx 400 benefitting Autism Speaks.

"Our (Sprint Cup) car has been really fast here," said Busch after climbing from the driver's seat in victory lane. "We unloaded fast. I think we'll be all right tomorrow. Our guys gave me a great piece (to drive) today."

From the podium to Le Mans for Taylor, WestbrookJordan Taylor and Richard Westbrook were soaked in champagne after claiming the top two spots in Saturday’s TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Chevrolet Sports Car Classic at Detroit Belle Isle, but they didn’t have much time to enjoy it.

Both were due at the airport hours after leaving the podium.

Jordan Taylor teamed with older brother Ricky to win the Prototype class. Westbrook and teammate Michael Valiante were a close second. The post-race press conference was cut short because Jordan Taylor and Westbrook had to dash to Detroit Metropolitan Airport for flights to Paris.

“I leave Detroit at 6:09 p.m. and I’ll be in Paris at 8:20, then it’s a ride to Le Mans to get there at 11:27,” Jordan Taylor said of the trip to test for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Having taken MotoGP pole at the Gran Premio d’Italia TIM on Saturday afternoon Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) heads the grid again for Sunday’s sixth race of the year, with Andrea Iannone (Pramac Racing) and Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) also featuring on the front row.

A 1'47.270 lap gave Marquez his sixth consecutive pole this year and his seventh successive top grid spot including Valencia last year, as his perfect form continued.

An excellent effort from Iannone (+0.18s) saw him show his pace again to get his first premier class front row start, the perfect response to his two recent DNF results and an ideal performance from an Italian rider on an Italian bike at the Gran Premio d'Italia TIM.

Sainz Jr crushes opposition to win at SpaCarlos Sainz Jr led a Red Bull junior 1-2 as he stormed away from rookie Pierre Gasly to secure a dominant victory in the first race of the Formula Renault 3.5 round at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.

DAMS racer Sainz Jr kept his composure during a frantic opening to the race to pull away from his rivals with ease, eventually winning by 18 seconds, with Jazeman Jaafar pouncing on a last-lap mistake by Matias Laine to claim third.

An extra formation lap was called due to a failure of the starting lights but the problem was not resolved in time and proceedings were halted for a few minutes.

Simon Pagenaud is red-hot about the interference penalty he received in qualifying.

Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsports driver Simon Pagenaud was hot after an interference in first-round qualifying disallowed his fast time, and prevented him from moving on. The winner of race 2 in the 2013 Chevrolet Indy Dual in Detroit Presented by Quicken Loans will start 17th this afternoon. Below, is a statement from Pagenaud after qualifying.

"I don't understand the (qualifying interference) call. I was running as fast as I could, getting my tires up to temp. It's not like I have time to just to actuall dick around, I'm going to say it. I was getting up to speed with my black Firestone tires. Montoya was on newer tires and came up to me. Fine. He's quicker, that's fine, but I was running as fast as I can."

Tudor series shows strong ties to manufacturersWith the hub of America’s automobile industry as a backdrop, the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) and its top-tier TUDOR United SportsCar Championship are showcasing an impressive lineup of both U.S. and international automotive partners this week, leading up to today’s Chevrolet Sports Car Classic presented by Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers.

A total of 11 official automotive partners are competing this year in IMSA, 10 in the inaugural TUDOR Championship season. That sort of involvement, which is critical to success, also was central to the original vision for the championship, which resulted from the merger of the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patr¢n and the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series.

At the start, Blomqvist locks his wheels, while Verstappen takes the lead

Briton Tom Blomqvist (Jagonya Ayam with Carlin) secured the winner’s trophy in the first of the three FIA Formula 3 European championship races contested this weekend at the 4.381 km Hungaroring. At the Formula 1 circuit located not far from Budapest. He passed pole-sitter Esteban Ocon (Prema Powerteam) for the lead right at the start and afterwards, he controlled the race to clinch a never jeopardized win. Esteban Ocon and Felix Rosenqvist (kfzteile24 Mucke Motorsport) joined the Briton on the podium. In the championship standings, Lotus F1 Junior Econ defended his lead but second-placed Blomqvist succeeded in reducing the gap to 50 points.

Pole-sitter Esteban Ocon lost his lead to Blomqvist as early as on the way to turn one and Max Verstappen (Van Amersfoort Racing) also passed the 17-year-old Frenchman early. A short time later, however, the Dutchman was re-passed by Ocon and on lap six; he pitted due to a clutch problem and was forced into retirement. So, Felix Rosenqvist inherited third position.

Cadillac Racing drivers Johnny O'Connell and Andy Pilgrim will start from the front row for today's first of two Pirelli World Challenge Series Cadillac Grand Prix of Belle Isle races.

Throughout practice the Cadillac Racing duo have crowded the top of the time sheet at the 2.3-mile, 13-turn modified street course. O'Connell (Flowery Branch, Ga.) took pole position in GT with a time of 1:31.899. Teammate Pilgrim (Boca Raton, Fla.) will take the standing start right next to O'Connell based upon his second place qualifying run of 1:31.955. This morning's race will start at 9:50 a.m. ET.

We have always had a good car here in Detroit," O'Connell said. "With the GM headquarters in the back ground we want to deliver. Going into qualifying I knew I had the car under me to go for the pole. I also knew that I would have to put together a couple of good laps and did and was able to get the pole for our home race. It was a great team effort from everyone at Cadillac Racing. Andy is starting next to me, so it is an all Cadillac CTS.V.R front row at Detroit. Can't ask for much more than that this morning."

Castroneves looks dominant as final round qualifying begins in DetroitHelio Castroneves appears to have found the secret chassis setup for the bumpy Detroit GP track as he was fastest by a wide margin (8/10ths sec) going into IndyCar Fast Six final qualifying. While Honda has been dominant recently, Chevy appears to have their number here in Detroit. After all, it is Chevy's backyard and many executives are watching.

Michelin secures MotoGP tire dealFollowing French tire manufacturer Michelin’s official tender, Dorna is pleased to announce that Michelin is to become the Official Tire Supplier to MotoGP as of the 2016 World Championship season.

At the beginning of May 2014 Dorna, in agreement with the FIM, opened a tender for tire manufacturers interested in becoming Official Tire Supplier to MotoGP from the 2016 season.

Interested tire manufacturers were able to request the technical specifications from Dorna’s Managing Director Javier Alonso, with three potential tire suppliers initially expressing an interest – before Michelin alone made a formal tender before the May 22 deadline.

The next step in the process will be the drawing out of a commercial agreement between Dorna and Michelin as Official Tire Supplier, Michelin having already clearly proven its technical abilities to respond to the needs of a demanding Grand Prix racing schedule.

Michael Andretti doesn't divert energy running a team in the series that wants to see IndyCar dead (NASCAR) like other IndyCar team owners. He focuses on making the entire IndyCar ladder work as well as promote races. IndyCar needs more team owners like Michael Andretti

Michael Andretti is 51, a long resume of racing behind him.

But the family name linked forever to IndyCar racing — thanks to his legendary father, Mario, and his talented son, Marco, not to mention his career that includes a series championship and more than 40 victories — is forging ahead as a team owner.

Nothing, of course, ever will compare to the sensation of being a driver, but Andretti has found ownership is the next best thing.

"I want to be one of the teams to beat," Andretti said by phone. "I think we are. When we go into the year, we like to say, ‘If we beat Ganassi and Penske, we will most likely win the championship.’

"I want those guys to think that way of us."

After last week’s victory in the Indianapolis 500 courtesy of Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport arrives in Detroit for this weekend’s Belle Isle Grand Prix with serious momentum.

The team boasts two of the top American drivers in Hunter-Reay and Marco Andretti.

Detroit is bankrupt after having chased all the wealthy people away (i.e. the people who pay 80% of all taxes) with high taxes so will Roger Penske tap his large bank account and pay to have the Detroit track repaved every few years because it's built on unstable soil?

It’s bumpy — very bumpy, indeed.

That’s what Verizon IndyCar Series rookie Carlos Munoz said he thinks of the Raceway at Belle Isle Park.

Munoz, who drives for Andretti-HVM, was 12th-fastest in practice Friday at the 2.3-mile track at 107.593 m.p.h. in his No. 34 Dallara/Honda.

In 2012, Munoz finished second in the Indy Lights race on the island.

“The track is the bumpiest so far here ... in America,” said the Colombian. “For me, for the rookies in general, it took some time to get up to speed (at Belle Isle) because it’s totally different from what you are used to driving, so it took a little while to get used to the bumps to the corners.”

Tony Stewart was asked how his leg is healing following last year's accident:ARE YOU ON SCHEDULE YOU THINK WITH HOW YOU THOUGHT YOU WOULD FEEL OR HOW YOU HOPED YOU WOULD FEEL AT THIS POINT BOTH MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY?

Stewart: "I honestly thought I would be done with all this by now. As far as rehab, pain, all that stuff I thought it would all be done. I thought we would be healed 100 percent by now. But keep going to the doctor on our scheduled appointments and they keep updating us on how it's going and what they think the outlook is for it. We just adjust it. When you haven't gone through something like this you don't know what to think and don't know how to feel about it. You don't know what to judge for recovery times and this and that because you've just never been through it. If it ever happens again I will have a better idea of how to answer that. You just take it a day at a time still."

05/31/14Tony Stewart plans to continue driving sprint cars and won’t let anyone talk him out of following his passion.

Stewart was sidelined with a broken leg last year after his early-August crash while racing a sprint car in Iowa. There's been speculation whether the three-time Sprint Cup champion would curtail his short-track open-wheel schedule in the aftermath of the accident.

F1 now boring, sound horrible? Blame Mercedes[Editor's Note: If you don't like the sound of the new F1 cars and find the parades boring, it was all approved to placate Mercedes so they would not leave the sport.]

Mercedes might be sweeping all before them at present but Daimler AG's Chairman has admitted that boardroom discussions about their F1 future took place during leaner times.

Speaking at the Monaco GP, Dr Dieter Zetsche said that senior management at Mercedes' parent company had to sit down and weigh the cost of racing - estimated at around £160 million last year - against the team's success, or lack of.

It's something that seems assured for the foreseeable future now the Silver Arrows have proved themselves the class of the field after the sport's move to a hybrid formula.

Q and A with Roger Penske on his Detroit GPWindsor Star columnist Bob Duff has five questions for Roger Penske, the man behind the revival of the IndyCar Detroit Chevrolet Belle Isle Grand Prix

Q In three years, the Detroit GP has evolved to include four different racing entities involving everything from open wheel racers to sports cars to pickup trucks. Has this event grown in ways even you wouldn’t have anticipated?

A The racing, starting at 8 a.m. Friday morning and going for three days, it’s terrific. I love the (IndyCar) duals. With the (major) sponsorship from Chevrolet and Quicken Loans, you’ve got local people trying to support it. The interest level in the race is at an all-time high. We had more interest in sponsorship this year than we’ve ever had. The change in the suites (to double decker suites) is going to be interesting. We’re sold out on chalets and suites. We’ve got the best sponsorship we’ve had since we reinaugurated the race back here three years ago. Quite honestly from our perspective, all we need is Mother Nature to give us an umbrella of sun.

Copyright 1999-2014 | AutoRacing1 is an
independent internet online publication and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed
by IndyCar, NASCAR, FIA, Sprint, or any other series sponsor.
This material may not be published, broadcast, or redistributed without
permission.